The way to secure liberty is to place it in the people's hands, that is, to give them the power at all times to defend it in the legislature and in the courts of justice.

I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate.

As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it.

Have you considered that system of holy lies and pious frauds that has raged and triumphed for 1,500 years?

Liberty can no more exist without virtue and independence than the body can live and move without a soul.

I have long been settled in my own opinion that neither Philosophy, nor Religion, nor Morality, nor Wisdom, nor Interest, will ever govern nations or Parties, against their vanity, their Pride, their Resentment, or Revenge, or their Avarice, or Ambition. Nothing but Force and Power and Strength can restrain them.

No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it.